SKYGLOWPROJECT.COM: HAARP BOREALIS

In the plains of remote eastern Alaska lies H.A.A.R.P. (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), an Ionoshphere research facility built in the early 1990s through joint effort from U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and D.A.R.P.A. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). In 2015, the site for fully handed over to UAF.

In 2019, SKYGLOW became one of the first civilian entities to be allowed to conduct a full night photography shoot of the magnificent Class 1 quality night skies over H.A.A.R.P. and this video and the rare footage in it is the result of that effort. As chance would have it, aurora borealis rolled in halfway in the night, providing a spectacular northern lights show as a backdrop. Just like the stars, aurora borealis visibility is heavily impacted by light pollution, so H.A.A.R.P.'s pristine night skies were critical to what is depicted in the footage.

The shoot took place in -30F weather as prolonged total darkness in Alaska predominantly takes place during the winter months.

This video was filmed as part of SKYGLOW (skyglowproject.com), an ongoing crowdfunded quest to explore the effects and dangers of urban light pollution in contrast with some of the most incredible dark sky areas in North America. This project is being produced in collaboration with International Dark-Sky Association (darksky.org), a non-profit fighting for the preservation of night skies around the globe.

The film was shot on Canon 5DIV cameras & lenses sponsored by Canon USA, aided by Alpine Labs' Michron & Pulse, powered by Paul C. Buff Vagabond Mini. LRTimelapse was used to process some of the shots. Adobe Lightroom and Premiere used for editing and processing.

This video is COPYRIGHT 2019 Harun Mehmedinovic / SKYGLOWPROJECT.COM. Any use beyond embedding this video in it's unaltered form and properly credited to SKYGLOW PROJECT/SKYGLOWPROJECT.COM on another website requires permission from the creator. Any use of the entirety or portion(s) of this video to drive advertising traffic, sales or any other profit-driven venture on a third party website without express permission from the content creator will result in prosecution to the full extent of the law.

A blend of images, stories, essays, and anecdotal captions, SKYGLOW explores the history and mythology of celestial observation and the proliferation of electrical outdoor lighting that spurred the rise of the phenomena known as “light pollution,” a grave threat not only to our incredible starscapes but also to the very ecosystem itself.

After a highly publicized Kickstarter campaign that ended as the fourth-most earning Photobook campaign ever, Harun and Gavin traveled over 150,000 miles and logged more than 3,000,000 photos on their grueling three-year quest. From incredible locations like the active Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii to Alberta’s majestic Northern Lights, SKYGLOW takes viewers on a visual journey through time, exploring our civilization’s evolving relationship with light and the night sky through the ages.

See how the ancient Puebloan archaeoastronomy sites of our native elders have now been replaced with the blinding “artificial day” of over-lit modern metropolises, and learn about the “Dark Sky Movement” fighting to reclaim the pristine darkness the Earth had enjoyed for billions of years. The importance of America’s threatened National Parks is also highlighted in a section of stunning landscapes from numerous parks, including Shenandoah, Yosemite, Acadia, Death Valley, Yellowstone and many more.

Completed in collaboration with the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), SKYGLOW also explores the numerous towns and sites that IDA has identified as official “Dark-Sky” Communities, Cities, Parks, Reserves and Sanctuaries.